The state of Keralam – What’s behind the name?

A discussion on its etymology

The state is making headlines, and several discussions will soon begin in the media, on social platforms, and of course, on TV. The official name Kerala, as written in the constitution when the state was formed in 1956, will soon be changed to Keralam at the request of the state government, which has long sought this change. Many people will soon offer expert opinions on the name's origin, and, as you might expect, these opinions will vary widely. For the sake of completeness, I will provide in this short article an analysis of these different usages and their development.

First, let's take a quick look at the discussions that led to the formation of the state between 1947, when India gained independence, and 1956, when Kerala was established. Based on a linguistic principle, all Malayalam-speaking areas were to be combined to form the boundaries of a new state. Before independence, there were four Malayalam-speaking regions: British Malabar and Kasargod (part of Madras state), as well as Travancore and Cochin, which were both princely states. While Southern Congress leaders supported a larger South Indian state of Madras (which is why we are all called Madrasis), the Aikiya (united) Kerala movement fought for a unified Malayalam-speaking state, and ultimately Kerala was formed in 1956. Interestingly, the entire idea was proposed by the Cochin Maharaja of that time, Kerala Varma VII.

A Rajya Sabha debate in Aug 1956 records Prof. G. Ranga explaining, "I wish to express my general satisfaction with the achievements of both the States Re-organization Commission as well as the Government." We are now going to establish in this country a Samyukta Karnataka State in the South known as Mysore, a Vishal Andhra to be known as Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nad also to be known as Madras, Samyukta Kerala or Aikya Kerala to be known as Kerala State in future. On Nov 1^st, Nov 1956, Kerala was formed.

Interestingly, correspondence from the British era used the term Kerala, and it became the official name. The noun formative ‘am’ somehow fell by the wayside. Nobody paid much attention to this. There is a grammatical basis for this, the ‘am’ was borrowed from Sanskrit, whereas in Hindi/Urdu, the final syllable was shortened, and it becomes Keral.

So, North Indians called Kerala 'Keral,' and in English, it was always referred to as 'Kerala' until recently, when a renaming effort aimed to change it. The Kerala Legislative Assembly passed a unanimous resolution in June 2024 to change the state's name from "Kerala" to "Keralam," following an earlier unanimous resolution in August 2023. The Union Cabinet approved this proposal on February 24, 2026.

But let’s now examine the name Keralam or Kerala. If one looks back in history and reviews the various usages, they will find the following: Malayalam or Malayala Desa, Malayala Rajyam, Keraladesa, Cheralam, Cheranad, Cheralanadu, Male, Malabar (in many books, the entire West Coast up to Bombay was called Malabar), Keralaputra, Keralamputra (Ashoka edicts), Malanadu, Celobothras or Keprobotras (Greek—both related to Keralaputra), Parasurama Kshetram, Bhargava Kshetram, Ke-ralati (Sanskrit—meaning floating on waters), etc. However, Kerala Desa and Malayala Desa were the more common names, while Kerala Ulpatti (Keralolpatti) and Kerala Mahatmya, two of the earliest records of the land's history, used the terms Kerala and Malayalam. I had discussed the usages of Male and Malabar earlier.

The word Malayalam is thought to originate from two words: mala, meaning 'mountain,' and alam, meaning 'region' or '-ship' (as in "township"); thus, Malayalam directly translates as 'the mountain region.' As a result, many neighboring regions referred to the people of Kerala as malaiyaḷar, meaning 'mountain people.' The local language, which developed over time, was later called Malayalam (or Kerala Bhasha). Therefore, Malayalam was not always solely a spoken or written language; it also referred to the region itself.

Some writers have previously linked Keralam to the combination of Keram and alam, where Keram represents Nalikeram or coconut. Nalikeram is described as a swaying tree, similar to the rhythmic movement of a dancing girl. K Achyutha Menon, who ridicules this idea, explains that it was likely borrowed from the Sabda ratnavalai, where the Nali derives from nari = woman, and kelam refers to dancing or a playful aspect. He quips humorously – All this is very ingenious and even entertaining, but the derivation still remains fanciful for an average man can find no resemblance between a swaying coconut tree and a dancing woman. He adds that many kinds of trees grow throughout Kerala and India, so a swaying tree can’t be used as a representative to name the entire region. In fact, coconut trees are found throughout India, as noted in the Periplus, not just in Malabar.

Hermann Gundert explains that 'Kerala' was the Canarese form of the ancient Malayalam word, 

'Cheralam,' meaning 'sandy or slushy land' (cher = sand, alam = village, country, or region).

Pandit Savariroyan, discussing the etymology of the words CHERA and KERALA, throws out the Sanskrit and coconut arguments, and insists that those scholars who mentioned it are sadly wanting in that respect. He explains that the Chera kings had a Cheral suffix denoting their country. In this argument, he adds that the term meant - Cher (join) and al (the range), denoting a mountain range. This Cheralam was used in the Ashoka edicts as Kerala putra, the king of Cheralam, when the Ch became K.

By way of explanation on how Ch became K up North, he adds - It is a well-ascertained fact that in Kanarese the initial palatals of Tamil words change as a rule into gutturals e.g., Tamil Cheyidan (He did) = Kanarese Geyidanu, Chevi (ear) = Kivi, Chenni (head) = Kenne.  There are many instances as these, and the same phonetic process was met by the Tamil word Cheralam and is naturally pronounced Keralam. Thus, we can have no hesitation in saying that Chera is a contraction of Cheralam and that Cherala and Kerala are etymologically and historically the same, and that Kerala is of more recent origin than Cherala.

HH Wilson, in his A Glossary of Judicial and Revenue Terms (p.p. 429), assumes it came from the word Khair (Arabic), which means good, best, etc., and defines it as the land given as a charitable endowment. Achyutha Menon thinks it could be a candidate, since, per the Kerala Utpatti, it was a land given as charity to the Brahmins by Parasurama. These align well with Kerala, which is often described as a Karmabhoomi, where salvation is attained through good actions.

A few words on Karmabhumi to add context - According to the Keraļotpatti, Kerala is considered Karmabhumi, or the land where salvation depends entirely and exclusively on good actions. The ground in Malabar is not itself consecrated, and salvation must be achieved through performing good actions. It was also said that the souls of those dying in Malabar would be transmigrated into the bodies of donkeys, and only good actions can save them from this severe fate. Nagam Aiya adds - The name ' Karma-bhumi ' signifies that the spiritual salvation of the inhabitants of this land depends entirely on good actions, as contrasted with the East Coast, or 'Gnana- bhumi ' (Janma bhumi) otherwise ' Punnya-bhumi where a man obtains salvation by mere birth irrespective of his actions, as the land itself is said to be consecrated ground. So far is this believed in that an orthodox Brahmin of the East Coast would not wish to die in Keralam lest he be born an ass in the next birth.

I have heard about this fear from our Pardesi Pattars, especially those living in Palghat. How they overcame it is a question I don’t have an answer to; however, someone said (fancifully?) that it could be the reason for their continued migration to Bombay, Bangalore, Madras, and Delhi.

The Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the Vayu Purana, the Matsya Purana, and the Markandeya Purana mention Kerala and Gokarṇam. It also appears in the Bhagavata, Padma, and Skanda Puranas. Patanjali, who is believed to have written his works around 150 BC, mentions Kerala. Most Greek accounts refer to the area as the kingdom of Cherabothra. The name appears in Ashoka’s edicts as early as 256 BC, and Katyayana mentions it in his 4th-century writings. Caldwell, in his 'Comparative Grammar of Dravidian Languages,' notes that the general name for this entire region in Sanskrit is Kerala, a term that appears in the Kapur Di Giri version of Ashoka's third-century BC edict, where the king of this country is called Keralamputra. Some believe this supports the idea that the name Kerala predates Cheras, so Cheralam after Chera and Alam, as suggested by Prof. Savariroyan, seems unlikely. However, I think Prof Savariroyan has made a good point.

There is also an issue with the scope of the Chera empire. It should also be remembered that these uses of Keralam were, at the time, representative only of a smaller part of present-day Kerala, because even during the Perumal period, we had Musikam, Keralam, Kupakam, and Venda, each evolving into an independent principality.

Keraļotpatti (below definitions valid circa 1800) mentions that the Malanad or Malabar or hill-country was divided into four parts,

(1) The Tulu-kingdom extending from Gokarņam to Perumpuzha (the large river), i.e., the Canaras (north and south).

(2) The Kupa-kingdom extending from Perumpuzha to Putupattanam, the seat of the Thekkenkur (Southern Regent) of the North Kolattiri dynasty situated on the Kotta river - i.e., North Malabar as defined, less the Southern half of the Kurambarnad Taluk.

(3) The Kerala-kingdom extending from Putupattanam to Kannetti, i.e., South Malabar, including the southern half of the Kurambarnad Taluk, the Cochin State, and North Travancore.

(4) The Mushika-kingdom extending from Kannetti to Cape Comorin, i.e., South Travancore.

So, Kerala in those days was the term used for a fourth of the overall country. Later on, areas up to Gokarnam and down to Kanyakumari were included.

Let us look at the name as connected to the axe-throwing sage, an avatar of Vishnu – The terms Parasurama kshetram, Bhargava kshetram relate to the Parasurama Myth, and his reclamation of Kerala from the sea after throwing his axe and letting loose the threat - Soon with my arrow will I dry this sea, till not a drop of ocean shall remain. The threat had the desired effect, for the god of the oceans at once receded to a specified distance and gave up the land to the irate sage. Thus was created Parasurama kshetram, or Bhargava kshetram, i.e., Parasu-Rama's or Bhargava's land, because Parasu-Rama belonged to the Bhrigu clan.

Nagam Ayya also mentions that Kerala was supposedly named after Varuna’s daughter, who married a prince named Keralan after the land rose from the waters (Menon considers this fanciful). As it goes - By propitiation of Varuna, the god of the waters, and by offering due worship to Bhumi Devi, the Goddess of the earth, Parasurama got permission to claim as his own as much land as could be covered by the throw of his axe from Gokarnam, which was then the Land’s End, into the southern sea. The land thus reclaimed is even now known in common parlance as Parasurama- kshetram or the land of Parasurama. Parasurama desired that the Trimurtis and the Devas give a fitting name to his new land. God Siva called it ' Kerala' in honor of the marriage of the Sea-king's daughter to Keralan, son of Jayanta (Indra’s grandson). Vishnu gave him his Sudarsanam (chakra) and Siva his Vrishabham (Nandi Bull) and these were consecrated at Srimulastanam in Trichur. Vishnu then crowned Jayanta as king, enjoining him to build 24,000 temples and to govern according to the Dharmasastras. Anyway, this Keralan (a theme of early teru kuttus) seems to have disappeared from history, never to be mentioned again. This Jayantan’s daughter Madhavi, that is, Keralan's sister, appears in the Tamil epic Silappadhikaram as Kovalan's love interest.

Presumably, Keralan was the first ‘Kerala Raja’ mentioned in one of the many Kerala Utpatti’s which starts thus - after the waters of the flood that had inundated Kerala, had retired in the 3491-year, fifth month and tenth day of the Kali the first, the Kerala Raja was born, and after reigning over the Malayalam, 63 years / having come to the throne when he was 20 years old, died at the age of 83 – after him came the Perumals. However, the KU specifically states that the Kerala raja ruled over the state of ‘Malayalam’.

Now for some fun stuff, definitions which our man in Trivandrum - Dr Shashi Tharoor, would use with a flourish - The name Malayalam is a palindrome (spelled the same forward and backward), and the place name Kerala is a portmanteau – a word that combines the sounds and meanings of two words (like brunch).

And as Dr Tharoor quipped - All to the good, no doubt, but a small linguistic question for the Anglophones among us: what happens now to the terms “Keralite” and “Keralan” for the denizens of the new “Keralam”? “Keralamite” sounds like a microbe and “Keralamian” like a rare earth mineral!

With all this, I hope the reader gains a broader understanding of the discussions that led to the adoption of the name Kerala or Keralam. But again, given that the original term was Malayalam, would it be reconsidered, and will authorities request a change from Kerala to Malayalam, another day? As for me, I was—and still am—happy with the old names I grew up with—such as Madras, Bombay, Bangalore, and Kerala.

Adding to my woes, Microsoft Word has been trying to correct me all this time, prompting me to change Keralam to Kerala….

References

A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages - Robert Caldwell

A Glossary of Judicial and Revenue Terms - Wilson, H. H.

Ancient Kerala – K Achyutha Menon

A History of Kerala: Volume 1 - K P. Padmanabha Menon

Indian antiquary – Aug 1902

Discursive notes on Malabar and its place-names – K P Padmanabha Menon

History Of Pre-Mussalman India Vol II Part I - V. Rangacharya

Travancore State Manual – Nagam Aiyya

Tamilian Antiquary – Vol 1, issue 1